THE SHADOW OF FEAR AND LIGHT OF LOVE
In today’s alternate Gospel reading, we hear Jesus tell a crowd, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” These words embody the deep struggle I’ve felt over the years when encountering someone who talks the talk only to remind me of the shadow side of our faith. Last Fall, I had one such conversation that was so unsettling that I briefly considered leaving the Church. The chat started innocently enough until the person began attacking entire groups of people, religious orders, fellow Catholic figures, and even the Pope. In the weeks that followed, I stopped attending Mass as I felt angry that this person wore a collar that I had been raised to respect. There was also a fear that maybe the Church was no longer the place of love and mercy that had so defined my life’s journey.
Two months passed before in prayer one night, I finally stopped reacting to this person’s comments. I sat with Jesus and gently looked at these emotions and realized the underlying fear that led that person to develop their views and say what they did was now the same fear that was driving mine. Returning to a place of love and mercy, I saw that I wasn’t much different than that person. We were both human with respective fears and ways we responded to them. No collar or theology degree exempted him from that, in the same way my more progressive views didn’t exempt me. Fear will always pull at us, and in these increasingly complex and divisive times, it’s easy to let it overcome the light, but Jesus offers us a way to live more fully though love and mercy.
In what areas of our life, do we react to fear or anger with fear and anger? How would bringing love and mercy to these areas of our life change them?
Albert Wolff